Brussels, 02/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Greece's Citizens' Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis acknowledged on Tuesday 1 November the problems that Greece was facing in the Schengen area and did not rule out the possibility of sanctions being taken by the 24 other members of the passport-free area, reports the website of daily Ekathimerini.
On Thursday 27 October, EU home affairs ministers and European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström expressed serious concerns over the progress made by Greece in improving its asylum system and better controlling its borders against illegal immigration. Greece is being monitored by the EU, which has provided funding, so that the country can begin detention centre construction programmes, and regularly provides help from experts and Frontex operations.
According to Ekathimerini, Papoutsis said that the Schengen issue is not over yet and that “the possibility of being excluded or of the gradual freezing of Greece's participation in Schengen is hanging over us”.
If a country were to be shut out of the Schengen area, this would allow its Schengen area neighbours to reintroduce controls at their borders, under new European rules currently being prepared with the aim of reforming Schengen governance. The reintroduction of border controls, to be used only as a last resort, will, in theory, be allowed when a Schengen area member state fails properly to police its section of the EU's external border. The European Commission wants, too, to be able to decide on reintroducing border controls. In this, it faces the stiff opposition of a number of member states, including France and Germany, which are unwilling to allow such decisions to be taken out of the hands of national governments. (SP/transl.rt)